CENT. I. These three illustrious sects agreed in the fundamental principles of the Jewish religion, and, at the same time, were involved in endless disputes upon points of the highest importance, and about matters in which the salvation of mankind was directly concerned; and their controversies could not but be highly detrimental to the rude and illiterate multitúde, as every one must easily perceive.

The three famous Jew

ish sects

various

points;

VII. It may not be improper to mention here some of the principal matters that were debated divided upon among these famous sects. A main point of controversy was, whether the written law alone was of divine authority. The Pharisees added to this law another, which had been received by oral tradition. This the Sadducees and Essenes rejected as of no authority, and adhered to the written law as the only divine rule of obedience. They differed also in their opinions concerning the true sense of the law. For, while the Pharisees attributed to the sacred text a double sense, one of which was obvious, regarding only the words, and another mysterious, relating to the intimate nature of the things ex pressed; and while the Sadducees maintained that nothing farther was delivered by the law, than that which was contained in the signification of the words; the Essenes, at least the greatest part of that sect, entertained an opinion different from both of these. They asserted, in their jargon, that the words of the law were absolutely void of all power, and that the things expressed by them, were the images of holy and celestial objects. These litigious subtilties and unintelligible wranglings, about the nature and sense of the divine word, were succeeded by a controversy of the greatest moment, concerning the rewards and punishments of the law, particularly with respect to their extent. The Pharisees were of opinion, that these rewards and punishments extended both to the soul and body, and that their duration was prolonged beyond the limits of this transitory state. The Sadducees assigned to them the same period that con

cludes this mortal life. The Essenes differed from CENT. t. both, and maintained that future rewards and punishments extended to the soul alone, and not to the body, which they considered as a mass of malignant matter, and as the prison of the immortal spirit.

procal tole

VIII. These differences, in matters of such high but they eximportance, among the three famous sects above. ercised recimentioned, produced none of those injurious and ration. malignant effects, which are too often seen to arise from religious controversies. But such as have any acquaintance with the history of these times, will not be so far deceived by this specious appearance of moderation, as to attribute it to noble or generous principles. They will look through the fair outside, and see that mutual fears were the latent cause of this apparent charity and reciprocal forbearance. The Sadducees enjoyed the favor and protection of the great the Pharisees, on the other hand, were exceedingly high in the esteem of the multitude; and hence they were both secured against the attempts of each other, and lived in peace, notwithstanding the diversity of their religious sentiments. The government of the Romans contributed also to the maintenance of this mutual toleration and tranquillity, as they were ever ready to suppress and punish whatever had the appearance of tumult and sedition. We may add to all this, that the Sadducean principles rendered that sect naturally averse to altercation and tumult. Libertinism has for its objects ease and pleasure, and chooses rather to slumber in the arms of a fallacious security, than to expose itself to the painful activity, which is required both in the search and in the defence of truth.

senes.

IX. The Essenes had little occasion to quarrel The Eswith the other sects, as they dwelt generally in a rural solitude, far removed from the view and commerce of men. This singular sect, which was spread abroad through Syria, Egypt, and the neighbouring countries, maintained, that religion consisted wholly in contemplation and silence. By a rigorous absti

CENT, 1. nence also, and a variety of penitential exercises and mortifications, which they seem to have borrowed from the Egyptians", they endeavoured to arrive at still higher degrees of excellence in virtue. There prevailed however, among the members of this sect, a considerable difference both in point of opinion and discipline. Some passed their lives in a state of celibacy, and employed their time in educating the children of others. Some embraced the state of matrimony, which they considered as lawful, when contracted with the sole view of propagating the species, and not to satisfy the demands of lust. Those of

The Therapeuta.

the Essenes who dwelt in Syria, held the possibility of appeasing the Deity by sacrifices, though in a manner quite different from that of the Jews; by which, however, it appears that they had not utterly rejected the literal sense of the Mosaic law. But those who wandered in the deserts of Egypt were of very different sentiments; they maintained, that no offering was acceptable to God but that of a serene and composed mind, intent on the contemplation of divine things; and hence it is manifest that they looked upon the law of Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious truths, and renounced in its explication all regard to the outward letter o.

X. The Therapeutæ, of whom Philo the Jew makes particular mention in his treatise concerning Contemplative Life, are supposed to have been a branch of this sect. From this notion arose the division of the Essenes into theoretical and practical. The former of these were wholly devoted to contemplation, and are the same with the Therapeutæ, while the latter employed a part of their time in the performance of the duties of active life. Whether this division be accurate or not, is a point which I

n See the Annotations of Holstenius upon Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras, p. 11 of Kuster's edition.

• See Mosheim's observations on a small treatise, written by the learned Cudworth, concerning the true notion of the Lord's Supper.

will not pretend to determine. But I see nothing in GENT. 1, the laws or manners of the Therapeutæ, that should lead us to consider them as a branch of the Essenes; nor, indeed, has Philo asserted any such thing, There may have been, surely, many other fanatical tribes among the Jews, beside that of the Essenes; nor should a resemblance of principles always induce us to make a coalition of sects. It is, however, cer, tain, that the Therapeuta were neither Christians nor Egyptians, as some have erroneously imagined, They were undoubtedly Jews: they gloried in that title, and styled themselves, with particular affecta. tion, the true disciples of Moses, though their manner of life was equally repugnant to the institutions of that great lawgiver and to the dictates of right reason, and shewed them to be a tribe of melancholy and wrong-headed enthusiasts P.

doctrine of

XI. None of these sects, indeed, seemed to have The moral the interests of real and true piety at heart; nor these sects. were their principles and discipline at all adapted to the advancement of pure and substantial virtue. The Pharisees courted popular applause by a vain ostentation of pretended sanctity, and an austere method of living, while, in reality, they were strangers to true holiness, and were inwardly defiled with the most criminal dispositions, with which our Saviour frequently reproaches them. They also treated with greater veneration the commandments and traditions of men, than the sacred precepts and laws of God 9. The Sadducees, by denying a future state of rewards and punishments, removed, at once, the most powerful incentives to virtue, and the most effectual restraints upon vice, and thus gave new vigor to every sinful passion, and a full encouragement to the indulgence of every irregular desire. As to the Essenes, they were a fanatical and superstitious tribe, who

P The principal writers, who have given accounts of the Therapeutæ, are mentiond by Jo. Albert Fabricius, in the fourth chapter of his Lux Salutaris Evangelii toto orbe exoriens. 9 Matt. xxiii, 13 to 30.

CENT. 1.

The multi

superstition

tion.

placed religion in a certain sort of seraphic indolence, and, looking upon piety to God as incompatible with any social attachment to men, dissolved, by this pernicious doctrine, all the great bonds of human society.

XII. While such darkness, such errors and dissentude sunk in sions, prevailed among those who assumed the chaand corrup-racter and authority of persons distinguished by their superior sanctity and wisdom, it will not be difficult to imagine, how totally corrupt the religion and morals of the multitude must have been. They were, accordingly, sunk in the most deplorable ignorance of God and of divine things, and had no notion of any other way of rendering themselves acceptable to the Supreme Being, than by sacrifices, ablutions, and the other external ceremonies of the Mosaic law. Hence proceeded that laxity of manners, and that profligate wickedness, which prevailed among the Jews during Christ's ministry upon earth; and hence the Divine Saviour compares that people to a flock of sheep which wandered without a shepherd, and their doctors to men who, though deprived of sight, yet pretended to shew the way to others".

The Cabbala, a

source of

among the Jews.

XIII. To all these corruptions, both in point of doctrine and practice, which reigned among the Jews many errors at the time of Christ's coming, we may add the attachment which many of them discovered to the tenets of the oriental philosophy concerning the origin of the world, and to the doctrine of the Cabbala, which was undoubtedly derived from that system. That considerable numbers of the Jews had imbibed the errors of this fantastic theory, evidently appears both from the books of the New Testament, and from the ancient history of the Christian church: and it is also certain, that many of the Gnostic sects were founded by Jews. Those among that degenerate people, who adopted this chimerical philosophy, must r Matt. x. 6; xv. 24.-John ix. 39.

$ See Joh. Chr. Wolf. Biblioth. Ebraica, vol. ii. lib. vii. cap. i. sect. ix.

t